Johannesburg, Oct 12 (IANS) South African cricket authorities have lauded vice captain Jacques Kallis who has won the International Cricket Council awards for Player of the Year and Test Player of the Year.

Kallis is the second recipient of the Test Player of the Year award following on from India's Rahul Dravid in 2004. Kallis received the trophy from Dravid in Sydney this week.

'It is wonderful to see South Africans featuring so prominently in the ICC Player of the Year Awards, especially to have Kallis finishing at the top of the two main categories,' said Cricket South Africa Chief Executive Officer Gerald Majola.

'The honour is even greater when one considers that he beat two of Australia's all time greats, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, by a considerable number of votes.

'Jacques' contribution as a batsman, bowler and fielder has been nothing short of phenomenal and has justifiably earned him the Player of the Year Award.

'South African cricket is very proud of, and grateful for, the leading role Jacques has played for more than a decade throughout the world,' Majola said. Kallis was 'an asset to his team, his sport and the South African nation'.

Kallis was the runaway winner of the award, polling almost three times as many votes as the runner-up, Australia fast bowler Glenn McGrath.

The awards were presented at the ICC Cricket Awards function in Sydney Tuesday.

ICC Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Speed said at the presentation: 'On behalf of ICC, I would like to congratulate Jacques on winning this award, which recognises his prolific year.

'It was a year in which Jacques Kallis was one of the most sought-after wickets in Test cricket, a fact reflected by his outstanding statistics.

'The fact this award was voted for by Jacques' peers and colleagues shows the high regard in which he is held by them and he is a worthy winner.'

Kallis has also shown his versatility by being the 12th man in the ICC ODI Team of the Year.

During the voting period of Aug 1, 2004 to July 31, 2005, Kallis played 15 Tests.

He was comfortably the most prolific batsman in the world during that time, with 1,497 runs at 71.28, including six hundreds, the most by any player, and a total of 14 scores of 50 or more.

With the ball he took 20 Test wickets and, usually to be found in the slip cordon, pouched 16 catches during the voting period.

The other nominees for the award were Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Brian Lara of the West Indies, Younis Khan, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Danish Kaneria of Pakistan, Australia's Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting, Anil Kumble, Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh of India and Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka.

The trophy, produced by Swarovski, features a crystal cricket ball studded with over 4,200 Swarovski crystal chantons, cusped in a hand that extends from an aluminium base. The hand represents the theme of 'breaking through' in pursuit of excellence.